About Me

I enjoy working through complex problems and coming up with simple solutions. I use tools such as research, design thinking, design sprints, and jobs-to-be-done to help me best understand what a product is trying to solve. I ship early and iterate. I enjoy a well-made peanut butter and jelly sandwich, cut in two triangles.

Higher Level Problems

March 18, 2018

Last month, I was getting annoyed with some of the things with my current email app. These little annoyances build up in my head, making me think that I’m not as productive as I could be. I started looking through what my other options are, assuming that I’ll get a huge productivity improvement from a new app. I look at what others are using, including blogs like The Sweet Setup and Interface Lovers. I’ll list out pros and cons of each app because none fit my specific use case perfectly. I’ll get even more annoyed that there isn’t an app that is great for my workflow.

In the past, I do this same process with task apps, notes apps too. Anything that I’m convinced will give me minor speed improvement or feel better in the app. I don’t just do this with software; I do it with my hardware setup as well. I’ve switched iPhone cases probably about four times in the last three months. Each change is thought through. This applies to my keyboard, mouse, backpack and more. You can even read through some of my overthinking onthissite.

I’ve realized that this process I was following was useless. I was tackling small problems that in the grand scheme of things didn’t matter. The time I invested researching the perfect app isn’t going to payout for me in the end. The milliseconds that I could save from a new app isn’t worth the headspace that I’m giving it. In a vacuum these small decisions aren’t that big of a deal. It’s good to analyze your setup to make sure you’re removing friction from your process. The headspace these low level details took up prevented me from thinking at a higher level.

I’ve been training myself to push aside small level thinking to not block more important thought work. Applying techniques that I’ve developed while meditating has helped me clear these choices from my head. Having a workaround so that I don’t get caught up in meaningless details will hopefully let me think about

As for my new email app? I’m using the standard Apple Mail on my phone and computer. Not because they’re the best email app but because they’re the simplest to setup and maintain.